Airship of 1896
The First Sighting During the years of 1896 and late 1913, an airship or blimp was seen worldwide by countless witnesses. It was reported to be 20 ft long, 50 ft wide mid-section taper down to 8 ft wide. It was pedal powered with 3 propellers. 1896 - The first recorded sighting was made by R. L. Lowery, who reported it to the San Francisco Call and Sacramento Bee. He claimed to have seen the airship. He claimed it had a passenger compartment. He also saw two men on the ship. Orders to climb were heard as well someone yelling "to miss the steeple." Others who had seen the airship reported the same, but they claimed to have heard singing coming from aboard. 5 days later it was seen by Mr. Zemansky, who saw it cross the sky for 5 minutes before disappearing in the southeastern sky. Zemansky said that the ship emitted, "An electrical arc light of intense power." 90 minutes later it passed over the San Francisco area. Hundreds witnessed this airship. Some claimed the electrical arcs were used to scare the wildlife at Seal Rock. Second Sighting 1897 - Le Roy, Kansas Alexander Hamilton report that the pilots of the ship lassoed one of his cows. But they became entangled in his fence. Hamilton helped to unsnare them. When they were freed Hamilton remarked, "I stood in amazement to see the ship, cow and all rise slowly and then sail off. 3 days later, another farmer reported a sighting in Hastings, Nebraska. He said it landed to make repairs, remarking it was cigar-shaped. In early April it floated over Chicago and was seen by many people. Another manin Wisconsin saw it claimed was made in Tennessee. A letter was delivered to Thomas Edison. It was written by the blimp's inventor, but was coded. But when asked about it he evasively answered the letter was a fake. The Last Sightings 4 April, 1897 - Springfield, Missouri The St. Louis Dispatch featured a report from Springfield, Missouri. Mr. H. W. Hopkins stated that he saw the blimp, but it was piloted by a nude man and woman. He yelled questions to them, but when he asked where they came from; he said they pointed up and "uttered something that sounded like mars." 9 days later, Dallas Morning News reported the ship had crashed into the windmill of a Judge Proctor in Aurora. It was claimed the pilot was killed and buried. It was said "he was not of this world." The Texas incident was investigated in the late 1960's. Then residents of Aurora who were there in 1897 were still alive. They stated that couldn't recall a crash and that Proctor had no windmill. It was of the opinion that the Dallas Morning News had just fabricated the event. But in 2008, Tim Oates, nephew of Brawley Oates and the now-owner of the property with the sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried, allowed the television documentary show "UFO Hunters" unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. The water tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum; the well had no significant contents. It was stated in the episode that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property. When the television crew asked to exhume the body, they were refused. They instead used ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits, finding an unmarked grave in the area near other 1890s graves. However, the condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively prove what type of remains existed. After 1897 it was sighted here and there worldwide with the last sighting being in late 1913 London, England. But since that time there have been no more sightings of the airship. Possibility of Existance: 2. Somewhat improbable; It could have been an inventor, testing a new blimp design. Sources Category:Strange & Interesting # Mystery airship From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia # The Unmuseum of Unnatural Mystery - UFO Crashes in the 19th Century # Aurora, Texas, UFO incident # The Aurora, Texas Crash of 1897 # The Dallas Morning News Article by S. E. Haydon